> That doesn't sound accurate to me. How can 10 mediocre programmers do the work of 1 spectacular programmer? I'm guessing this only applies when we're talking about mundane stuff.

90% of the software that gets developed worldwide is mundane stuff. There's a gazillion mediocre programmer bashing away at a useless app That Revolutionizes How You Connect With Your Friends for every good programmer that hacks at next-gen filesystem driver or a tinier phone.